May 14, 2013 AT 1:00 am

Make Your Own Joseph Merrick Body Pillow

Joseph Merrick died in 1890, but he was better known as The Elephant Man because he had a rare condition that gradually disfigured his bones and skin. His head eventually became so heavy that he had to sleep sitting up, but when his body was found he was lying on a bed and the official cause of death was asphyxia from the weight of his head. Joseph Merrick never got to sleep in a bed with another person his entire adult life, so I made this body pillow to mimic the experience of cuddling him since that’s something he never got to do.

"The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time" - Tom Cargill